No one
by Firmament
Summary: In spirit of the whole "Make a Season two episode better" or something similar, I give you this. ML, Harbour Lights. Completed
1. Default Chapter

**Disclaimer:** _Dark Angel belongs to not me, enough said._

**Author Note:** _Hit briefly by some inspiration - some would call it a return of the muse - I fiddled out this little piece. Next chapter is written, and will appear... shortly._

_**No one**_

__

'No one's around. Leave a message,' the familiar timbre of Logan's voice informed her.

'Hey, it's me. I'm leaving a message. I haven't heard from you in a while. Just… checking in. Hoping you're okay. All right… um… take it easy.' Max hung up the phone uneasily, feeling heavy and tentative with the current situation between her and Logan.

'Things still weird between you and Logan, huh?' asked her ever-perceptive best friend.

'Define "weird",' Max replied clinically.

'Weird, as in he's still upset that the twelve-hour window you had to be together got slammed shut on his fingers.' Max had to smile a little at Original Cindy's frankness.

'When you put it that way, yeah, things are still weird.'

'Did it ever occur to you that maybe this cure worked better than you thought? Far as you know, that virus bitch could be out of your system for good,' Cindy countered, trying to spark some optimism in Max.

'No, I went to see Delbert the lab geek. He said the bug's back, full-blast. I touch Logan, he dies,' she replied, her voice quivering slightly at the thought of killing him.

* * *

_…insert Harbour Lights here…_

* * *

'I got some Eyes Only stuff that I gotta take care of, so…' Logan gestured weakly toward the door and began to leave

'Hey.' Max stemmed his departure with her hail, and he turned eagerly to the request.

'What?'

'Thanks. For…' she indicated toward her ankle '…you know.' She smiled at him warmly. All Logan could manage was the briefest quirk of the lips in return.

'Yeah. Take care of yourself, Max.' 

Max's smile faded as he turned and began to leave. Depression started in once again as the door to her apartment closed. Cindy walked back in the room and sat next to Max.

'So things are still weird between you and Logan?' 

'Yeah, I guess.'

'Man still loves you, you know. Risked his ass to save your life.'

'Yeah,' Max agreed half-heartedly, still wanting to believe the fact that Logan wasn't over her.

'If it wasn't for him, the CDC would have their hands on a real-' The ringing of the phone interrupted Cindy, '-hold that, I'll get the phone.'

A few seconds later Original Cindy walked back in the room, phone in hand. 'It's for you. Your lab geek.'

Max rolled her eyes and extended her hand for the phone. 'What?' Her tone was tired. A few seconds of silence ensued as Max listened to the phone.

'You're kidding? No, no, of course I want it.' 

From what Cindy had heard of this conversation she was about to pop with excitement for Max. The only problem was that Max didn't seem too excited about the news. A small beep indicated the end of the call.

'He figured it out? You got a cure! I'm so happy for you,' Cindy squealed as she lunged at Max into a very energetic hug.

'Hey, watch it. I got shot yesterday,' Max said tiredly, pushing Cindy off her.

'Sorry, boo. I'm just really excited for you. It's what you and money bags deserve.'

'Well, I hate to burst your bubble, but he doesn't have a cure-'

'Then what was that all about,' Cindy interrupted hotly, her bubble well and truly burst. 

'He thought I would be crying because he didn't get the cure to work and he felt bad or something. So he's giving me most of my money back. S'pose that's something.' Max's lip trembled slightly and her eyes started to glisten.

'Oh, boo. I'm so sorry,' Cindy consoled, sitting next to Max again and holding her, 'you two are gonna beat this bitch. I swear.'

Cindy was heart-wrenched as she felt Max sob against her shoulder and grip her desperately. This virus was breaking her and only now did she release some of the tension that had been building up for the past few months. After a minute or two Max composed herself and moved out of Cindy's embrace, looking shy and embarrassed but still a little puffy around the eyes.

'Sorry about that,' Max said weakly, brushing at her eyes with the back of her hand.

'Ain't no shame in lettin' it out, sugah. In fact, I think you should do it more often, so you don't explode in a big gooey mess one day. You know I have always got your back, boo,' Cindy said, looking Max in the eyes to drive her point home.

'Yeah, thanks O.C.,' Max replied, finally wiping the tears from her face.

'Now, at a time like this I'd suggest comfort food and barrels of it. But seeing as the world is in turmoil, alls we got is this soup here. So eat up and pretend it's ice cream or something.'

Max smiled a little and then began to eat the soup. Her smile didn't last long and soon she was back to looking tired and terribly, terribly sad.


	2. Concluding

**Disclaimer:** _Dark Angel belongs to not me, enough said._

**Author Note:** _The name of Sam is used purely for tongue-in-cheek purposes, since I've noticed that the good people of Dark Angel (S1 and S2), seemed to enjoy using that name. This chapter concludes this story in quite a fluffy and feel-good manner. Well, at least I hope it does. As a point of interest, this is the last new fic I will write. From here on in, I'll be finishing things off and I may post my reasonably sizable AU fic (or may not, since it isn't finished yet)._

_**No one**_

Two days later Max was up and about, not any happier, but able to function normally again. She decided that she should go and get her money, since money was money, and everyone needed it.

'Hey, Delbert,' Max yelled in the standard messenger style to his seemingly empty lab. She slowly walked in and looked around. This was the kind of lab she didn't mind; messy, colourful, quite unkempt and not a single stainless-steal operating chair in sight.

'Oh, hey… ah… hey,' Delbert greeted nervously, as he rounded a shelf stacked with assorted bubbling beakers and saw Max standing in his lab. Names never being his forte.

'Max,' she said, rolling her eyes slightly.

'Oh yeah, Max. How are you doing?' he asked, trying to sound casual but striking quite wide of the mark - dropping the pen he was holding and knocking over a stack of papers didn't help either.

'I didn't come here so you could try and pick me up. You have my money?' Max asked, again rolling her eyes.

Delbert looked thoroughly embarrassed and very uneasy, and began to shift around with some notes on a clipboard, keeping his eyes well averted from Max.

'Delbert, money.'

'Delbert? My name's Sam,' he replied, still nervous and bumbling.

'Oh, sorry.' Max looked quiet taken aback, and began to feel bad for picking on this guy who obviously didn't mix with people very often or very well. 'Okay then, Sam. Can you please just go and fetch my money. I have some other things to do.' It was a lie, all she planned after this was to go and sit on the Space Needle for many hours.

Sam became incredibly agitated and start shifting around even more. 'Yeah, about the money. Well you took so long getting here that I thought you may not be coming, so I kind of spent it.' He looked particularly horrified with his confession and started to slowly back away from Max.

'You mean to say I came all the way down here only to be told that the money I gave you is now gone? Couldn't you have just phoned me or something?' Max asked, inching closer to Sam and anger with each breath.

'I'm sorry. I guess I'm a pretty impulsive shopper, and I just saw this auto-clave the other day, with the self-weighted gyroscope and I just had to have it. It's got presets, digital scales, atmospheric readers, the works. Do you want to see it?' Sam explained excitedly, now oblivious to the twisted expression of confusion and anger on Max's face.

'No, I don't want to see it, all I wanted was my money, but since you don't have that I'm leaving.' Max turned and began walking out of the lab. Before Max would have intimidated Sam until he coughed up the money, or a better excuse to explain why he couldn't produce it, but now she just didn't really care. As she flung the door open, Sam called her.

'What?' Max replied sharply

'Um, okay, I know it doesn't really count and all, since I said I'd have it done by a specific time and I didn't. But I managed to figure that virus thingy out,' Sam said meekly, rubbing his arm nervously. Max's head shot around and stared at him in disbelief.

'You what?!'

'Figured that bug out, but I know it's too late and I should have had it done for you when I said it would be done. I just thought you may be interested to know.' Sam explained, he seemed embarrassed to admit it had taken him so long to figure the thing out.

'And you didn't think this information would be important to me?' Max asked incredulously.

'Well, no. I thought you had a time crunch on it, and that if it wasn't done by that time, it didn't really matter.'

'It still… I… where is it? Do you have it?' Max asked, desperately grabbing Sam by the collar and shaking him a little. He now looked well and truly scared. He extended an arm awkwardly to point at one of the many vials on his shelves.

'Okay.' Max released Sam and stepped back a little bit, then she noticed that Sam was still standing there nervously. 'What are you doing? Get the cure!' Max said, making a threatening step towards him. He gave a small yelp before rushing off to get the phial and some syringes.

'Righto, there you go, all cured,' Sam said happily, extracting the needle from Max's vein.

'How do you know, how can you be sure?' Max asked hurriedly.

'Oh, I'm very sure. You know how the last one surrounded the virus?' Max nodded, 'Well this one just goes in and wipes the sucker out. In about five minutes time there will not be one scrap of that nasty bug left in your system.'

Max remained glued to her chair in disbelief and completely dumbstruck. Sam thought she was still angry about her money, and how he had used it.

'Look, Max, about your money. I may be able to get some together. But not right away, over a period of time or something.' Sam chanced a look at her and noticed her eyes were beginning to glisten. 'You're not going to start crying are you?'

Max lunged at him and hugged him tight, kissing him lightly on the cheek. 'Yes, I think I may,' she said with incredible zeal, small bits of moisture loosening from her eyes and sprinkling down her face. 'And keep the money, you did what I paid you for. And now, I really have to go. Thanks for everything Sam, bye.' With that she shot out the door, leaving a very confused but extremely happy lab geek behind.

* * *

__

Ding. Logan's doorbell sounded surprisingly loudly, shaking Max's state of nerves even more.

Logan opened the door, and Max watched as his face went from tired boredom, to lighting up with surprise and delight, before it finally settled with the common mask and a pleasant smile. 'Hey, Max. I didn't expect you.' Logan admitted, stepping aside and allowing her entrance.

'Either did I, but something happened today that changed all that.' She walked past him into the kitchen and placed a bottle of wine on the counter, before heading for the lounge.

Incredibly confused - but pleased nonetheless - Logan followed suit and sat down on the couch opposite her. 'So what happened today that made you want to come and see me?' Logan asked seriously, considering that most likely there was another transgenic problem that needed sorting out.

'I went and saw Sam today,' she said with a large smile. Logan's expression was quite blank.

'Sam?'

'Sam, that's the name of our lab geek,' Max explained with a slight laugh. It then suddenly struck Logan, another temporary cure.

'Max, I don't know if I can go through that again. I'm really glad that you came over, but I think it would be best if you just leave, it will make everything easier in the long run.' Logan said downcast, standing and walking slowly to the window and the rain washing down it.

Max nervously made her way to him, wrapped her arms around his waist and lay her head on his back. Logan turned in her embrace and looked mournfully down at her, tentatively stroking her cheek with his fingertips.

'Max, we can't do this again. I can't do this again.'

Max stretched up and kissed him lightly on the lips. 'Please Logan. I need to be with you, it's killing me not being able to spend time with you.' Logan folded quickly and let out a deep sigh and a small defeated laugh accompanied by a warm grin.

'Okay Max, you win.' He kissed her gently on the forehead, and pulled her body closer to his. 'How long have we got?' he asked sadly, running his hand through her hair and down her back.

A crooked and overtly happy smile crossed Max's face as she looked up at him, her eyes shining with mirth.

'All the time in the world.'

**end**


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